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Monday, December 31, 2012

A Past Unknown has been using social networking sites to
their advantage in order to get their name out there in the world. This is the
same reason why new bands such as Rings of Saturn and Strychnia have been trending
on Facebook and Twitter. Although I go on Facebook every once in a while,
Twitter is where I’m the most active. And one thing that I will say is that A
Past Unknown is no longer the underground metalcore band I’ve been going to see
for free for the past year or so. Because I’m friends with the vocalist’s
brother (who lives in my area), he’s always been updating me on what A Past
Unknown has been up to. I reviewed their first album some time ago and I
remember saying that although it’s a very catchy and energizing record, there’s
a lot of room for improvement, which is EXACTLY what I expect from a debut, because
it’s hard to come up with a good follow-up record to a flawless debut. Anyway,
I signed up for Twitter roughly a month before Vainglory’s release date. And if
there’s one thing I remember about the album’s release, it’s that after getting
repeatedly annoyed by the band’s repeated ads and “check us out!” messages, I
witnessed a swarm of positive feedback and rave reviews from possibly hundreds
of people worldwide. Of course, I was one of the people that, out of support
for the band, decided to buy the album on its release date; I understand why
this album has caused so much fucking hype.

So that I can do some compare and contrast with Vainglory
and To Those Perishing, I’m going to restate some of the stuff I thought the band
could work on from their first album, To Those Perishing. The majority of the
problems I had with To Those Perishing are the problem I have with just about
every metalcore album I have problems with. That problem is having too many
breakdowns. In A Past Unknown’s case, the problem was not only having too many
breakdowns, it was that 80% of those breakdowns were very minimalistic, simple,
and boring. To Those Perishing had its moments, the biggest one being the sixth
track off the record, titled The Critic; which contained beautiful melodies,
crushing breakdowns, and a cacophony of colorful harmonizations. Beyond that,
the rest of the “interesting parts” didn’t go anywhere beyond a catchy
breakdown tempo or an interesting guitar lead. The rest of the album was just
above average, giving my ending score for To Those Perishing 14/20. If they
could fix that breakdown thing and put more interesting shit in there while
still keeping their jumpy and energetic personality, I would be much happier.

The first sign of mass improvement that Vainglory shows is
musicianship; both skill and creativity. Obviously due to a few minor lineup
changes, the style that some of the members play on Vainglory is different than
that of To Those Perishing. The first is the drums. The drumming on Vainglory
is not only much more interesting, it’s more colorful and experimental. The
fills that are used differ from each other, the kick drum patterns during the
breakdowns can be anywhere from simple and generic to random blasts of speed
and complexity. I have nothing against the simple breakdown drum pattern, but
the variety of styles and patterns used by the drummer helps take away any
sense of monotony. On top of just being more interesting, the drums express
much more skill that I feel To Those Perishing was missing. Along with that,
the breakdowns themselves are fewer in number and greater in variety. Every
metalcore band throws in a simple breakdown here and there, no matter how
technical or complex they are, so of course there are a couple of the typical
down-tuned simple breakdowns. But those are contrasted by either breakdowns
with a lot of atmospheric guitar melodies and melodic vocals or by breakdowns with
complex polyrhythmic patterns. The different breakdowns also differ with tempo and
pitch. One of the much more interesting breakdowns in Vainglory takes place two
minutes into the eighth track, Divided.

The vocals have more variety in them as well. The vocals in
To Those Perishing consisted of mid-range screams with the occasional
high-pitched scream and some singing every once in a while. In Vainglory, the
mid-range screams are still the dominant vocal style, but they’re a little more
high-pitched than the ones in To Those Perishing and have a considerably greater
amount of energy and emotion. Also, you can hear growls, high-pitched screams,
yelling, and a lot more singing, which is yet ANOTHER factor that has helped fix
the monotony problem To Those Perishing had.

You can tell by now that I felt To Those Perishing to be a monotonous
record, despite all of the great qualities it had. I’ve also stated a few major
factors that I feel are contributors to the fact that Vainglory ISN’T
monotonous and boring. The one thing that I have yet to say is what I feel is
the biggest contributor to that, and that is dynamics. I actually just realized
this about a week ago, I had an underlying feeling that something from To Those
Perishing was missing, and a week ago, I realized that To Those Perishing was
missing dynamics; THAT was the reason why so many people felt it didn’t have
enough energy and was monotonous, although it had potential. Now that I’m
listening to Vainglory, what do I hear? DYNAMICS! The contrasts in volume help
tone down the calmer parts and throw down the heavier parts like something
really, really heavy. The energy that Vainglory carries is one that can only be
understood once it is heard, and it’s primarily due to the fact that the fucking
thing has dynamics, and it is BEAUTIFUL. Purpose, Cursed, Reason to Fear, and
The Search are all perfect examples of the colorful dynamics used in Vainglory,
A Past Unknown style.

To Those Perishing was a great debut because it left plenty
of room for improvement. Now that the ultimate power titled Vainglory is now
upon us, I think it’s safe to say that A Past Unknown is one of the better and
more interesting metalcore bands of our time. Some of the things they do aren’t
what metalcore fans would expect, there’s variety in just about everything, and
most of all, there are fucking dynamics! Vainglory takes its rightful place
alongside Miss May I’s At Heart, Mnemic’s Mnemesis, and As I Lay Dying’s
Awakened as one of the best metalcore albums released in 2012. Vainglory gets
my score of 16/20.

American band Malignancy is one of the leaders in today’s
uprising underground technical death scene. Of course, the true “leaders” that
have been the most successful lately would include recent big names such as The
Faceless, The Black Dahlia Murder, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Spawn of Possession,
Obscura, Origin, and a few others. But in the more extreme underground world,
where the brutality of the average band is much higher, the technical death
bands that are the big dogs include Brain Drill, Inherit Disease, Insidious
Decrepancy, and Malignancy (and probably a few others I can’t quite think of at
the moment). Malignancy formed in 1992 and released several demos and EPs
throughout the 1990s until finally releasing their full-length debut titled
Intrauterine Cannibalism in 1999. After a couple of splits and a compilation,
Malignancy didn’t see a sophomore release until 2007 when the much more
professional and thought-out Inhuman Grotequeries was released. During their
career, several lineup changes took place, leaving vocalist Danny Nelson as the
only remaining original member. Now, 2012 has not only seen the first
consistent release from Malignancy, but has also given Malignancy one of their
first truly big tours with death grind behemoths Dying Fetus by performing on
the second half of the tour.

The average opinion on Malignancy is fairly mediocre. Like
every band, Malignancy has diehard fans as well as people that wish them dead.
But most of the reviewers and metalheads that have bothered to even mention
them don’t love Malignancy, but they don’t hate them either. Regardless, let’s
see what the hell Malignancy’s newest release, Eugenics, is all about.

Compared to a lot of other very underground technical death
releases, the production quality of Eugenics is much higher than one might
expect. But then again, with the ease of access bands have to better recording
equipment and programs, along with a do-it-yourself attitude, this sort of
thing gets less and less surprising. Moving on, it’s not so much the actual
production quality itself that’s interesting as much as it is the sound of each
of the individual instruments. For example, the drums have a very meaty and
thick sound similar to that of Eviscerated’s self-titled release. When the
sound of the drums is put on top of the powerful, but very mushy and soft guitar
distortions, it creates an extremely unique sound that I sometimes wish I heard
more in this type of metal. And, because the bass is SO important in technical
death, the effects (if any at all) that are applied to the bass guitar are
minimal. This helps bring out the complexity of what the bassist plays,
especially when he’s harmonizing and following along with the guitarist during
technical sweeps and solos.

Next are the vocals. Those of you that have read any of my
death metal reviews before already know that I don’t have a problem with
inhaled vocals. I am, though, aware that there are certain situations where
inhaled vocals are what the music requires, and other times where inhaled
vocals can bring down the sound of the music. The vocalist is good, don’t get
me wrong on that, but the problem that many people have with Malignancy is that
they feel that the music would sound a thousand times better with exhaled
vocals. My opinion on that is that I agree with that statement, EXCEPT that the
inhaled vocals sound just fine where they are, but yeah, including exhaled
gutturals in there would intensify the music.

The second reason why people seem to have a problem with
Malignancy and this album in particular is that it is in no way unique or
innovative. Assuming that innovation isn’t what the band is going for, that
wouldn’t be the most valid argument. But after listening to this album for
about a month or so, I don’t notice any innovation at all, BUT, it is unique.
The clean blend of Dying Fetus, Embryonic Devourment, and Pathology isn’t
something that I’ve heard before. Of course, there are somewhat similar bands
(better than Malignancy) such as Insidious Decrepancy, Inherit Disease, and
Diskreet; but none of them have quite the same vibe and sound as Malignancy. But
even though they’re unique, it appears that the only reasons that Eugenics has
gotten so much positive attention is because of the instrumental skills and the
unique sound of the production of the instruments.

If you compare Eugenics to Malignancy’s other albums,
Eugenics has an obviously higher amount of effort put into it as well as a more
confident sound. Whereas the two previous albums had a sound that portrayed the
band as being somewhat unsure of themselves. This is probably due to the
rejoining of legendary Mortician guitarist Roger J. Beaujard in 2009. Roger
originally played drums for the band from 1996-2003, where he focused more on
Mortician, later rejoining Malignancy as their bassist in 2009. This, I
believe, helped bring back a much more confident attitude to the band which is
obviously displayed with the increase in creativity, technicality, and
musicianship in Eugenics.

Eugenics is a good album for the technical death fan to have
in his/her collection. But if you’re one of those people that prefer to seek
out the more progressive and innovative acts, you might as well consider it as
a waste of time. For me, this isn’t an album I would go back to unless someone
asked me about it. Other than that, the only times I’ll end up listening to it
is when I have all of my technical death stuff on shuffle. If you’re curious,
you should check it out, because the musicianship displayed in Eugenics is
above-average and contains an immense amount of slamming technical brutality
with a fair share of sweeping riffs and slamming breakdowns. I would give
Eugenics a score of 10/20.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Canada’s metal scene has been very good to us over the past
decade or so. The country has spawned a diverse selection of fantastic metal
bands such as The Agonist, Augury, Blackguard, Threat Signal, Neuraxis,
Despised Icon, Ex Deo, and countless others. A deathcore band that spawned out
of Canada in 2010 is Ascariasis. Although when a lot of people hear that (for
some reason) dreaded term “deathcore”, their minds go in automatic rejection
mode. But here’s the thing, if there’s one thing I know about the progressive
metal label that the band is signed on to, Subliminal Groove Records, it’s that
the LAST thing they would do is sign on a generic band that causes people to go
into “rejection mode”.

Ok, we’re at the point where we can instantly recognize
Cameron Gray’s artwork. If you’ve seen the covers for The Discovery by Born of
Osiris, The Harvest Wombs by Fallujah, or Time I by Wintersun, there’s a big
chance that you would have stopped for a second and thought “wait a minute…where
have I seen this before?” Well, the guy that’s known for making the trippiest
science fiction-themed artwork is responsible for this one. But album artwork
doesn’t necessarily describe a band’s sound right off the bat (although it can
often times give you a pretty good hint), so we’re going to open this EP up and
see what it has in store for us.

The band’s intriguing and sometimes mind-boggling blend of
deathcore, polyrhythmic breakdown patterns, and technical death is what has
caused them to get international attention. But wait, isn’t that the same
reason Veil of Maya, Born of Osiris, Fallujah, and so many other bands are so
big right now? What makes Ascariasis any different? Upon first listen,
Ascariasis is no fucking different than any other trendy “djent” deathcore
band. But, once you listen to the EP several times in a row, you start to
realize how much complexity there is (not to say that those other bands aren’t
complex). Unlike a lot of the recent deathcore bands that have been popping up
recently, Ascariasis’ musical style has A LOT more to it than just those really
fancy breakdowns that sometimes make you forget the actual tempo of the song.
Technical deathcore band Veil of Maya is probably the band I would compare
Ascariasis to, but then again, take everything that Veil of Maya does and blow
it out of proportion.

Even though it’s not my personal favorite, the most
interesting track, by far, is the first one, Shatter. The song starts in a
similar way as Alpha Incipient by Fallujah with a very melodic and generally
simple melody that fades in fairly quickly. Like Alpha Incipient, Shatter then
goes from that light-hearted melody down to a driving breakdown. Here’s the
difference between those two songs: although extremely catchy, the breakdown
following the intro in Alpha Incipient is simple and easy to follow. The
breakdown following the intro in Shatter is something completely different. It’s
hard for someone to exaggerate when describing this because half the point of a
breakdown is to have a drop in tempo and pitch that someone could more-or-less
headbang to. Ascariasis has a completely different idea, because not even one
full second into the breakdown, the polyrhythmic tempos caused me to COMPLETELY
lose track of the tempo. Although it’s a phenomenal demonstration of the members’
instrumental and technical skills, it’s a bit overdone.

What is MUCH more enjoyable is the rest of the song. About 1.5
minutes into the track, you start to hear a complex breakdown with a Born of
Osiris-influenced lead guitar line that, with its high-pitched frilly texture,
transports the listener to the metallic clouds that can be seen on the album’s
artwork. These really frilly guitar melodies, along with the extremely tight
and complex kick drums are what take up the majority of the technicality on the
record. Something that shouldn’t go unmentioned is the bass. As technical and
complex the guitars and drums may be, neither of them even compare to the
energy that the bass puts out, especially when the guitars and bass pull out
insane arpeggios at the same time and weave in and out of each other. There are
some bands that can pull off some insane bass/guitar harmonizations (The HAARP
Machine, Obscura, Spawn of Possession, Rings of Saturn, Sadus, etc.), but very
few have left me intrigued in the same way Ascariasis has.

I first noticed the insanity of the bassist at the very end
of the second track, Torchbearer. During the breakdown, although quiet, the
indescribable speed of the bassist speaks out. If only the bassist’s solos were
easier to hear. Also, if the band’s goal is to have a more technical sound and
less of a “djenty” deathcore sound, turning up the bass and possibly throwing
in a couple extra blast beats in here and there will significantly help, as
long as they’re careful not to overdo it. The one thing left to talk about has
been saved for last, and that is the vocalist.

The vocalist is one of the best growlers I’ve heard in
years. I have a set description of the perfect growler which includes being
powerful, very deep, exhaled, not too much voice, and other little things that
make me sound nit-picky. This guy has all of those qualities, he makes me
happy! Even his screams that can rarely be heard are good! There’s just one
problem, he doesn’t fit. Those extremely demonic growls that send chills down
the spines of the weak don’t really sound good with the rest of the music. The
reason why is probably because there’s a lot more growling than screaming going
on here. During the really epic and melodic parts, there should be more screaming
and less growling. This would sound better because there would be less clashing
going on with the high-pitched guitar melodies and the EXTREMELY deep growls. Also,
on one last note, a slightly less dependence on breakdowns will make their
music sound much less predictable and more interesting.

Ascariasis is one of those bands that take common trends and
meld them together to create a colorful and progressive sound. Mixing modern
deathcore, polyrhythmic tempos, and technical death, Ascariasis acts as a
refresher and a progressive act that is going down the exact same road as Veil
of Maya, Born of Osiris, and Fallujah while still keeping their own identity.
The music that Ascariasis has created on this EP hasn’t amazed me as much as it
has intrigued me and more-or-less fucked with my mind. I look forward to
hearing a full-length from this band and to see where they go. I would give
this EP a 14/20.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Prophecies of the Pagan Fire and Towards the Skullthrone of
Satan appear to be the two most well-known and loved albums that Enthroned has
put out. Enthroned has been one of those bands that have been trudging along
almost nonstop since they released their first album in the mid-1990s. Ok, so
they’re one of the more old school black metal bands. Where are they now? It’s
interesting how little you hear about some of these bands after about 10 years
or so of existing. Of course, this is understandable because bands often times
have their reasons for fading out of the public eye. Whether it be that they
suck, too many lineup changes, shift in attitude/lyrical theme, or the more
common reason: they aren’t any different than they were 15 years ago. The fortunate
thing about this is that there are certain bands that have the ability to keep
the exact sound and still sound original and great (Motorhead, Grave, Cannibal
Corpse, Slayer, etc.). But, of course, the majority of bands that do that get
labeled as “uncreative”, “bland”, and “overdone”. Some people put labels like
that on bands that have only released two albums; that’s just fucking pathetic.
Armoured Bestiality is considered by some to be the last album Enthroned
released before they started getting old. Due to new and upcoming black metal
bands that sounded different at the time were what people were listening to
(1349, Dark Fortress, Angantyr, Xasthur, Ajattara, Nargaroth, etc.), not the
newest Enthroned album. Having possessed Enthroned’s entire discography for
about a year or so, I thought that it would be a good idea to mention their
2010 release, titled Pentagrammation.

Not to say that I care (because I don’t), the whole
in-your-face Satanism thing is now officially considered tacky and even
something that brings down a band’s reputation (unless, of course, they’re some
huge legendary band that’s been around since the 1980s). This has caused to
reputation of bands like Marduk, Dark Funeral, and Deicide to suffer. Why do I not
care? In case you’re curious, it’s because imagery and lyrical themes/concepts
are the last thing I notice about a band. I would go on a rant about “oh it’s
all about the music!” but Enthroned is what I’m here to talk about. So in other words, yes, they could have chosen
a better album title than “Pentagrammation”, but that’s the one they chose and
we’re just going to ignore that for now.

Enthroned’s continuation after the departure of their last
remaining original member in 2006 has remained a controversial element that has
created skepticism towards everything the band has released since then. Tetra
Karcist, the first Enthroned album to be released without any of the band’s
original members, wasn’t exactly the band’s strongest moment. The 12-song
record with that black scorpion on the cover cost Enthroned a lot of their fans
and put a nice, clean dent in their reputation. It’s albums like these that
build a lot of anticipation for a follow-up. Although XES wasn’t that good of
an album, as well as Carnage in Worlds Beyond, for some odd fucking reason,
Tetra Karcist really upset a lot of people, as well as bringing in fresh, new
fans that were more of, let’s say, “21st Century black metallers”.

Pentagrammation acts as both a refresher and a disappointer.
It acts as a disappointer because there really isn’t anything new; it’s the
same old shit being recycled with a few things being taken out and a thing or
two being added in to give it some spice. It acts as a refresher because the
way that everything has been “recycled” and re-arranged has caused
Pentagrammation to have its own form of originality without sounding different
from the rest of Enthroned’s discography. The high guitar melodies slice
through the music with razor precision like a clean, new blade cutting through
flesh. The vocals vary in style more than enough to keep things interesting,
and sometimes even a little too much for the strict black metal style these
guys play. I think part of what helped the sound of this album is getting fresh
ideas and influences from currently thriving black metal bands such as Watain,
Merrimack, Enslaved, and Goatwhore. In other words, Enthroned has used
Pentagrammation as a way to come up with their own take on the modern generic
black metal sound.

Oh, this album has a very ambient and atmospheric sound
(similar to Wolves in the Throne Room, but less drone-like), so the best way to
listen to this album is to turn it up really loud. Otherwise, the really fuzzy
guitar distortions will take over and make it impossible to hear anything other
than distortion and drum cymbals. When you turn up the volume, you hear a
significantly greater amount of musical intelligence and creativity than in
many of Enthroned’s previous albums. The album’s high-quality production gives
the Enthroned sound an entirely new vibe. Some might even mistake it for a
completely different band.

All-in-all, don’t expect anything new. Instead, expect
everything you’ve heard before, but with a different perspective. The way that
Enthroned has recycled everything has ended up being surprisingly good. But I
would tend to agree with most people that although Pentagrammation is
definitely a comeback, Enthroned’s sound has grown tasteless and dry. I would
give Pentagrammation 13/20 and would recommend it to all black metal fans.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Ok, the Blogger app for Android is officially AWESOME!! The UI is much better and yeah..now I can be one of those uber blogger nerds! Will I be making mobile posts regularly? Probably not. I'll be posting an "Upcoming Reviews" post tomorrow to help me get started on writing since I haven't done it in a while.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Why such a big number like 30 instead of 15 or 20? Because 2012 is one of THE BEST years the heavy metal genre has EVER seen! This was a hard list for me to put together (except for the album that got the #1 spot), but I finally pulled it together. All of these albums are truly amazing, and they aren't the only amazing metal albums that were put out this year. If I've written a review on the album, click on the album title to view the review. Here are the top 10:

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

I've started to get emails asking if I'm putting my blogging on hold or if I'm now inactive. Why haven't I been posting like mad lately? It's a little thing called High School and wanting to GRADUATE. Hopefully, when winter break starts next week, I won't be so fucking busy and I'll actually have time to write. Like everyone else, I will be posting a "Top albums of 2012" list towards the end of the month. The list will be longer than other years because this is probably one of the best years the metal genre has ever seen.

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